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With the demise of the language
requirement, Core stands as the only
all-college academic requirement. Moreover,
as a result of Jefferson House even Core is not
genuinely an all-college requirement.
In this unique position the Core curriculum
is likely to experience increasing demands for
reform or abolition. In the past our Core
planners have met criticism with token
reforms cunningly packaged to appear radical
or at least innovative. Probably the only Core
innovations of the past five years of any
significance were Core Science and "Area
Studies." Various other tampering with the
Core curriculum has occurred but this has
mostly resulted in the facelifting of old
programs.
I believe that, in order for Core to a viable
part of the FPC curriculum, all of the
following untested assumptions of the Core
program must be carefully considered:
1.That Core can be planned and taught
without a fairly precise and meaningful
statement of purpose.
2. That Core classes must be segregated by
gradelevel.
3. That a small number of faculty must
determine the reading material for a
large number of students.
4. That books are chosen to fit discussion
topics rather than the opposite.
5. That lectures are a valuable aspect of
Core.
The purpose of Core, I believe, should be
to allow students to intensively study one
area le.g. culture, Asia, Latin America-social
problems, racism, environment-art, graphics,
photography, etc.l for one semester only. All
these subjects could be taught as regular
courses, but as Core courses they would be
designed for non-majors who don't have the
time to pursue the subject further but who
are definitely interested in being exposed to
the study area. I question the paradox of
formulating a "centraI theme" each semester
then asking each discussion group to adhere
to the theme and simultaneously have its own
unique experience. In the past the central
theme has seemed far too contrived. I
therefore suggest its de-emphasis.
A second purpose of Core which I would
advocate is the acquisition of communication
skills. It has been my experience that some
students are graduated from FPC barely able
to write coherently or speak articulately on a
given theme, while others are bored by
writing numerous papers for Core and sitting
through lengthy discussions.
I suggest the collection of all written work
of each student in the Core office. This would
allow professors who had never had a certain
student in his classes before to determine
what writing skills the student has developed
and whether or not it would be worthwhile to
continue to require writing exercises li.e. term
papers, etc.l to improve his ability to
communicate. It would also enable the
professor to determine whether the student
did "creative projects" as an exercise in
creativity or as a dodge from a task which he
was not competent to perform.
As a concomitant of de-emphasizing
"central themes" it would be valuable or
perhaps even necessary to allow students of
all four grade-levels to participate in all
project groups. I see no reason for segregating
Core by grade-levels or, especially, treating
Seniors as a group which needs special
arrangements for Core.
There is one aspect of the "central theme"
which may have some merit, viz. Core reading
lists. Many educators land studentsl recognize
the value of reading widely during the
undergraduate years material which is not
necessarily correlated with any course work.
If Core is to continue requiring certain
reading for all students, I suggest the
formulation of a Core reading list of
approximately 75100 books. This would not
be the equivalent of a list of "great books"
but, instead, would reflect our Core
professors' opinion of what readings would be
particularly valuable land hopefully
interestingl to Core students. This list could
be relatively easily formulated by collecting
ballots from all Core professors and could be
annually revised by the same method. With a
reading list such as this, Core students could
be required to read a certain number of books
each semester or have completed a certain
percentage of the list by the end of the Senior
year. This would eliminate the somewhat
capricious reading selections which a small
number of planners is likely to make. There
seems to be no evidence that it is valuable for
all students to be reading the same book at
the same time.
Finally, I would like to raise the issue of
Core presentations. Nlost members of the
college community place a high value on films
as a pedagogical tool. For this reason I think
that the Core cinema series should be
expanded.
However, as to the other prominent mode
of presentation, the lecture, a great deal of
investigation should take place. Questions
should be raised such as: Why give a lecture
which reviews something already presented in
Core readings? Why give a lecture simply
because it is that time of the week and a
lecture is on the schedule? Why present a
lecture orally? Why not print copies of the
lecture and distribute it, thus saving
everyone's time and enabling the student to
review the entire lecture rather than scanty
notes?
Core has been, at times, a valuable part of
the FPC curriculum. With a greater willingness
to question some of our basic assumptions
Core can continue to be a valuable
experience.
Jay Gilbert

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Alfred North Whitehead, in the Aims of
Education, presents perhaps the best
definition of the educational process when he
says "There is only one subject-matter for
education and that is Life, in all its
manifestations." lNew York, 1929, p. 6l For
Whitehead there is not and should not be the
division of the curriculum into descrete units,
there is no place for unrelated ideas presented
and not used. These inert ideas, which are
neither used, nor tested, nor even tied to one
create an
another in meaningful ways, '
education which, in Whitehead's words, "ls
all things
not only useless, it is, above
harmful . . ." lp. 1l Whitehead believes that
there should not be teaching for the sake of
teaching, that the teaching of facts should be
subservient to the teaching of reasoning.
There is a distinction to be made between the
acquisition and the application of facts,
"education is the acquisition of the art of the
utilization of knowledge." lp. 4l Knowledge,
to Whitehead, is almost peripheral to its use.
Although he does not advocate non-learning
l"where attainable knowledge could have
changed the issue, ignorance has the guilt of
vice" lp. 14ll, he is more concerned with
being able to learn when it is necessary.
Realizing that youth by its very nature
concerned with absorbing all that is presented
to it, Whitehead is anxious that the educator
provide a framework for the sometimes
unrelated information acquired. "Education
must essentially be a setting in order of
ferment already stirring in the mind, you
cannot educate a mind in vacuo." lp. 18l
This, above all, is Whitehead's concern: that
the educational process be an orderly one, be
one which supercedes itself in regard to its
immediate and long range applications.
Robert Maynard Hutchins, the former
president of the University of Chicago, goes
one step further than Whitehead in the
requisites for education. Although a series of
lectures delivered at Yale University in 1936,
The Higher Learning in America lNew Haven,
1936l, speaks about problems still facing
higher education today. The financial
problems of maintaining a university, the
dilemmas of professionalism, isolation and
antiaintellectualism are considered. It is his
address on general education, however, which
is an extension of Whitehead's remarks on the
purpose of education and, more importantly,
ways to achieve this purpose. Hutchins
believes that all men, whether "formally"
educated or not, must have a common means
of expression, a "common intellectual
training" lp. 59l. For Hutchins, any plan of
general education must first of all develop
clear thinking.
Prudent or practical wisdom selects the means
toward the ends we desire. lt is acquired partly
from intellectual operations and partly from
experience. But the chief requirements for it is
correctness in thinking. lp. 67l
This correctness in thinking cannot be
developed rapidly, nor can it be left to
students to develop. "Educators cannot
permit the students to dictate the course of
study unless they are prepared to confess that
they are nothing but chaperones . . lp. 7Ol
ln developing the curriculum for his general
education, Hutchins depends on the classics,
the great books of Western Civilization, and
acquiring the skill to read them. "I add to
grammar, or the rules of reading, rhetoric and
logic, or the rules of writing, speaking and
reasoning." lp. 83l To these he adds
mathematics. "Correctness in thinking may be
more directly and impressively be taught
through mathematics than in any other way."
lp. 84l Hutchins, like Whitehead, believes that
the development of technique is more
important than the accumulation of fact.
When the FPC curriculum was devised by
John Bevan, it incorporated much of what
Whitehead and Hutchins had described as
necessary to the education of students. To
Bevan, the FPC community, both faculty and
students, was "involved in the pursuit of
learning." lExperimental Colleges, Their Role
in American Higher Education, Tallahassee,
1964, p. 91l lVluch of Bevan's plan involved
independent study work, and many of the
learning traditions, e.g. no required class or
chapel attendance, open stacks in the library,
were begun to facilitate almost complete
independence on the part of the students.
This independence did not make chaperones of
the faculty, students worked in connection
with, and under the direction of, a faculty
member who was most of all personally
excited about learning. However, it is the
Core program which is directly related to
what Whitehead and Hutchins see as essential
to education. The objective of Core is: "to
equip the student for the formation and
articulation of informed, independent
responsible judgments of value." lp. 92l This
is, in essence, following Whitehead's idea that
education is a "setting in order" of the
thoughts of men. Hutchins belief that clear
thinking is most necessary is acknowledged:
"the development of skill in analysis, dialectic
and writing receive attention as necessary
preparation for value judgments." lp. 92l In
addition to the attention paid these skills in
Core, the required math or logic course also
developed the talent for analysis necessary to
the educated man. For FPC, the mandate, as
stated by Bevan, is "the engenderment of a
wholesome and critical enthusiasm for inquiry
and reflection that will extend beyond the
period of formal education." lp. 92l
FPC, has, I believe, rejected, at least in
part, the philosophical base on which it was
founded. The emphasis has shifted from value
to quantity, passing Core means reading and
not relating. The objective tests do nothing
but create "inert ideas" in the minds of
students, at no point do all of these thoughts
even approach utilization. No longer does a
Core comp help students see an overview of
their knowledge. By doing away with the
mathilogic requirement, the necessity for
"correctness in thinking" has been minimized
to too great an extent. By packaging
knowledge into 14 week bundles la required
33 courses to "graduate"l the wisdom of life
is clouded. lf we are to accept Whitehead's
definition of education, FPC cannot be
included. lf conventional methods should be
disregarded, as FPC says they must, are we
offering anything new? Are we, in reality, any
different from the multiversity we scorn?
Warren Nlartin, during the self-confrontation
in November, 1968, called us
innovative-"seeking new means to
established ends, where the basic values of the
educational system are assumed to be sound".
Perhaps we are rejecting even this, and falling
back on established means, the means we
were protesting.
Anne Noris

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